Syngenta Seeds Appoints North America President, Region Director

Syngenta announced today that Ponsi Trivisvavet has been appointed a region director for North America and president of Syngenta Seeds, Inc. She is based in Minnetonka, MN.

In this role, Trivisvavet will share responsibility for the Syngenta North American business with Vern Hawkins, region director, North America. She replaces David Morgan who was recently named global head of vegetables and is based in Basel, Switzerland.

Previously, Trivisvavet was head of Syngenta’s Southeast Asia territory, where she led agricultural business operations in five major countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. She managed the development of key crop solutions to help increase the productivity of corn, rice, specialty crops and vegetables.

“Ponsi brings a wealth of strategic and commercial operating experience, along with broad knowledge of the seeds business, to her new role in North America,” said Davor Pisk, Syngenta chief operating officer. “During the time she led our business across Southeast Asia, the region experienced strong sales growth.”

Prior to leading the Southeast Asian business, Trivisvavet was based in Basel, where she served as the global head for the corn crop unit. She led development of the company’s global corn strategy and managed the overall corn portfolio including seeds, traits, crop protection and new assets. Also, she was responsible for developing the overall biotechnology traits strategy including traits licensing agreements across all crops.

Trivisvavet joined Syngenta in 2008 to lead the seeds strategy team. Previously she held positions with McKinsey & Company in the U.S., Europe, Middle East, South Africa and Asia. She holds a master’s in business administration with distinction from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

“I look forward to leading our North American business with Vern Hawkins. Syngenta is the leader in crop protection with a strong pipeline of new products. In seeds, we have a trait package that is second to none along with the genetics growers need for improved crop productivity,” said Trivisvavet. “Our focus will remain on delivering what our customers need. When they succeed, we succeed.”

Key achievement measures are outlined in The Good Growth Plan, the Syngenta commitment to make a measurable contribution to world food security by 2020. The Good Growth Plan comprises six commitments to address the food security challenge through boosting resource efficiency, rejuvenating ecosystems and strengthening rural communities. For more information, visit www.goodgrowthplan.com.

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